Polk's Oakland (California) city directory, 1928, Part 2

Author: R.L. Polk & Co
Publication date: 1928
Publisher: Oakland, Calif. : R.L. Polk & Co.
Number of Pages: 1708

USA > California > Alameda County > Oakland > Polk's Oakland (California) city directory, 1928 > Part 2
USA > California > Alameda County > Oakland > Polk's Oakland (California) city directory, 1928 > Part 2

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

CLIMATE

Oakland's climate is extremely equable. The average temperature for the twelve months is 57.1 degrees. The days are never too hot for comfort and the nights are always cool. Seldom, even in the so-called winter months, does the mercury drop to 32 degrees F. It is due to this ideal working climate that Oak- land shipyards-and incidentally Oakland is one of the largest shipbuilding

centers in the world-were the ones to set one building record after another during the World War.

HEALTH CONDITIONS

In point of health Oakland has consistently ranked among the first cities of the nation for a long period of years, and statistics show that it has become an increasingly more healthful place for residents during the last fifteen years.

In 1920 Oakland ranked second in smallness of death rate out of a list of forty-three larger cities compiled by the United States Government. The rate which was then 11.6 per thousand was exceeded only by Seattle, where the death rate was 10.5.

It is noteworthy that Oakland, as indicated by the death rate, exceeds in health conditions both Los Angeles and San Francisco; in one case 3.4 per thou- sand and in the other by 3 per thousand.

POPULATION

The population of Oakland in 1910 was 150,174, in 1920, 216,261, a gain of approximately 44 per cent in a ten-year period. At the present rate of growth it will register a materially larger percentage of increase during the ten years between 1920 and 1930.

The cities of Berkeley and Alameda and the municipalities of Emeryville, Piedmont, San Leandro and Albany have now grown together into one compact whole. It is these seven cities which are referred to as the East Bay community.

SCHOOLS

Few cities in the United States can hoat of a more perfect school system than Oakland, or more attractive school buildings. Noted educators from every section of the world have praised Oakland's educational facilities. The present school enrollment is in excess of 60,000. In Berkeley, which adjoins Oakland on the north, is the great University of California, the largest in the United States in point of enrollment and incidentally one of the richest in the matter of endowment.

Oakland has 44 primary and grammar schools, 15 junior high schools and 7 high schools.

PARKS AND PLAYGROUNDS

Oakland's new park and playground development-a noteworthy feature of which was the acquisition last year of extensive municipal golf links-undoubt- edly will be conducive to a still higher level of health and well-being among resi- dents of this favored city. Among the Oakland parks which have attracted the attention of tourists from all parts of the world is beautiful Lake Merritt and Lakeside Park. Lake Merritt, situated in the center of the city, comprises 160 acres, and is surrounded by wonderfud lawns and beyond these by beautiful mod- ern homes and apartments. On one side of the lake is situated Oakland's new million dollar auditorium.

The waters of Lake Merritt are dotten the year round with canoes and launches and during the so-called winter months many thousand of wild ducks make Lake Merritt their home. Spring finds these traditionall wild birds almost as tame as barnyard fowls. They walk on the lawns and among the sightseers, apparently recognizing that their safety is assured.

The annual visit of these ducks that have adopted this spot in sunny Cali- fornia as their home has been made the occasion for pageants on the part of the people, and each January the now nationally known Wild Duck Pageant is held on the lake shore.

Possessed as it is of all those things considered essential for a great metropo- lis, with three transcontinental railways, its position on one of the world's great- est land-locked harbors and with ample room in which to make a tremendous expansion, Oakland's future is assured.

Berkeley

Chamber of Commerce

Invites You to the Educational Metropolis of the Pacific Coast

Berkeley Looking Through the Golden Gate Offers You:

An ideal living and working climate, cool in summer, mild in winter.

The most favorable health conditions of any city of its size in America.

A City Manager government.

A successfully financed Community Chest providing for Berkeley's 20 welfare agencies.

The most modern and progressive police and fire protection.

Exceptionally fine schools preparing for the entrance to the University.

The University of California, one of America's greatest institutions of higher education.

A splendid industrial district giving oppor- tunity for light and heavy manufacturing.

Attractive homes, artistically designed, set in gardens of perennial bloom.

BERKELEY

Reaching along the base of the gracefully rolling Berkeley hills, the city looks westward over the glorious pageant of San Francisco Bay to the Golden Gate, the mystic portal through which the commerce of America and all the lands of the Pacific Ocean are interchanged. To the south of the Golden Gate it looks upon San Francisco built on its many hills. To the north it faces the Marin County hills rising into the gracefully chiseled profile of Mount Tamalpais. Close at hand lies a long stretch of plain sweeping from the bay shore and crowded with dwellings and the buildings of trade and industry. The whole panorama as revealed from the height of Berkeley is one of beauty and splendor.

Southward extends the fair city of Oakland, its ships lying beside the docks, its factories crowding the waterfront and the graceful towers of its tall office buildings marking the business center, with Lake Merritt glistening like a jewel in its setting of park.

During the past thirty years Berkeley has emerged out of the obscurity of a little college town of four or five thousand people to the present city. In those pastoral days the country roads were dusty in summer and deep pools of mud made walking difficult in winter. Two board planks served as sidewalks and broad fields of grain and orchards of cherries and other fruit invited the way- farer to loiter. The townsfolk carried their lanterns when they walked abroad at night. A few of the wealthy residents had horses and buggies, and a horse car went out from Oakland to Temescal, where a wheezy little steam dummy con- nected with the University grounds.

Based on comparative figures of the government census of 1920 and the Berkeley Postoffice and Chamber of Commerce survey of 1926, Berkeley has a population of considerably over 85,000 inhabitants, including some 6000 students of the University from outside homes. Of this number over 7000 are commuters having their business in San Francisco. The metropolitan area of San Francisco and the East Bay cities includes in a compact district on the shores of the central Bay area a population estimated at 1,200,000 inhabitants distributed between the cities of San Francisco, Oakland, Piedmont, Berkeley, Alameda, Richmond, Sausa- lito, and the smaller intervening cities.

From the standpoint of climate, site, living conditions and educational oppor- tunities, Berkeley is today a magnet attracting those who appreciate the better things of life. The great problem today is to keep up with the growth In popu- lation by making proper provision of schools, playgrounds, parks and other necessities of a rapid-growing community.

The University of California is located in the very heart of Berkeley on six hundred acres of beautiful hill slope and plain, with Strawberry Canyon in its midst, cutting back into the Berkeley hills. In the classic white granite buildings with red tile roofs, clustered around the graceful campanile, some 15,000 students pursue their studies in the regular session, the intersession and the summer ses- sion of the University. Included in the scope of its activities are one of the foremost colleges of mines in the country and a college of agriculture that is reaching out over the entire state in creating untold values to the land by its investigations of means for destroying pests of fruit and farm products, by teaching how to irrigate and to prune, by soil analysis and by removing the element of chance from husbandry and developing it into a science. Its college of architecture is training young men and women in the art of creating buildings nobly conceived in the light of artistic traditions of the past and the engineering skill of the present. Its college of medicine is endowing the men and women who are to be the guardians of life and health of the people of tomorrow with new standards of proficiency. So in law, economics, commerce, the natural sciences, pedagogy, the classics, history, art and letters, the University of Cali- fornia, under the presidency of the eminent astronomer, William Wallace Camp-

bell, is training the leaders of thought and action to take their places in the great democracy which is destined to shape the course of world history.

In addition to the thousands of native sons and daughters of the Golden West, the University of California is educating students from many states and from many nations. At the 1928 Commencement were graduating students registered from China, Canada, Egypt, Philippine Islands, Russia, India, Spain, Japan, England, Holland, France, Australia, Finland, Canal Zone, Argentine ,Germany, Syria, Denmark, Mesopotamia and South Africa. These young men and women are absorbing the training, customs and standards of American life and carrying them home to help in the great task of creating and interpreting world brother- hood in the nations of the world.

The athletes of the University of California have made many world's records, proving that California with equable coast climate, its out-of-door life and its abundance of fruit and vegetable food, together with exceptional sanitation and public health work, is producing a superior physical type of man. This fact is further demonstrated by the wonderful victories of the University of California rowing crew, which this year won the world's championship on the Sloten Canal at Amsterdam after having beaten the best crews in America. The fact that Helen Wills is a resident of Berkeley, a student of the University, and that she received her training in tennis here, while Helen Jacobs and many other tennis champions are products of the Berkeley courts, is evidence of the athletic supe- riority of Berkeley girls.

Residents of Berkeley have a singularly favorable chance of rearing all their children to maturity. The infant mortality rate over a period of years has been one of the lowest in the country and the general mortality rate has also been very favorable. The death rate per thousand inhabitants for 1926 was 9.89, which is an exceptionally good showing.

The thorough supervision of the milk supply by the Health Department, the unceasing care of the water supply by the East Bay Water Company, and the work of the Welfare Organization, with its trained staff of visiting nurses, are important factors in this health record. By far the largest number of deaths in Berkeley occur in the age period between 60 and 80 years.

Another field in which Berkeley is doing pioneer work is the Police Depart- ment. The basis of Chief August Vollmer's work is the education of children who have established bad or unsocial habits. In this work he is now ably sec- onded by a highly trained policewoman. Many of the police officers are college graduates or students, chosen for a combination of physical and mental pro- ficiency. They are gaining a training which makes many other communities look to Berkeley for police chiefs. The lie detector, the highly developed finger- print department and the expert work in criminal identification have made the Berkeley police system internationally famous.

All charity, welfare and social agencies receive public contributions under the Community Chest plan, which has now served twenty-one agencies for the past four years.

Berkeley has operated for the past four years under the City Manager form of government, which has been conducted in a thoroughly business-like way and has gained very general approval from the community. John N. Edy has served as City Manager since the revised charter was adopted. The Mayor at the present time is M. K. Driver, who with the city council is enthusiastically behind Mr. Edy and his administration.

Under the able leadership of Superintendent L. W. Smith, Berkeley has an exceptionally efficient and successful school department. It has a large and well-conducted High School, four Junior High Schools, and a complete elementary and kindergarten system. Children are taught by the group project plan, which is as inspiring and fascinating to the children as it is effective in training. Berkeley's greatest school need today is more buildings to accommodate the rapidly growing registration of pupils.

On the waterfront Berkeley has over a hundred factories which produce over $50,000,000 of diversified products annually. Cocoanut oil, soap and automobile, marine and airplane engines, ink, and various types of metal, wood and food prod- ucts, are among the larger industries, but the articles manufactured cover a wide field. Owing to superior climatic and living conditions, many manufacturers are today seeking locations in this favored city, where the workers live in comfortable individual homes and where out-of-door life is agreeable all the year round. The Chamber of Commerce, which has made a careful annual survey of Berkeley industries, has worked for selected, high-grade types of factory, and has pointed out the value in reducing turnover, of having factories of good architecture and surrounded by gardens of flowers.

The hills are attracting many of the leaders of business in the bay cities who commute from their charming homes set in gardens of perennial bloom. A ferry and electric train service unexcelled in the country carries them back and forth. many retired army and navy officers, after seeing the world, have chosen Berkeley for a permanent home.

The presidents of some of the leading banks of San Francisco, business and professional men in varied fields and officials in high positions in the government and other public services make their homes in Berkeley.

This city is winning a national reputation as an art center, and painters, writers, sculptors, architects, composers and performers of music, as well as land- scape architects and workers in the various handcrafts, make their homes and have their studios in Berkeley.

The Chamber of Commerce has cooperated with the City Government in many ways, and among others, in endeavoring to assist in city planning and the acquisi- tion of more parks and playgrounds. Berkeley is calling to men and women of distinction in science and art to come to the college city, destined to become more and more the center of learning and art of the Pacific, to help to plan and to build here a city worthy of this peerless site.

The Indo-European stock from which builders of Western civilization have grown took its origin in the shadow of the Himalayas. The Indian Ocean was its first theater of action. Thence it traveled westward through the Red Sea into the Mediterranean and builded there the civilizations of Greece and Rome. Through the Pillars of Hercules it swept, on into the Atlantic, and Spain, France, Italy, The Netherlands and Britain grew into maturity and strength. Then still west- ward it moved into the New World, conquering the American wilderness and building the first great democracy that spelled the doom of kings. On it pressed, westward, ever westward, over prairie and plateau, over desert and mountain, until Fremont stood upon the Contra Costa hills and named the Golden Gate.

Today Berkeley, christened by the founders of the University of California after the idealistic Bishop of Cloyne, stands upon the westernmost rim of Western civilization, looking through the Golden Gate, out over the vast waste of the Pacific. Beyond the sea is the ancient East, that land of hoar antiquity teeming with its millions. California is the farthest west where the New World must pile upon the last margin of the Indo-European migration. Berkeley, the intellectual center of California, standing upon its hill slopes with the vision of the setting sun in its mystic portal, must look steadfastly through this gateway and must ponder along on the problem which it conjures to the imagination. The Pacific, now linked by the Panama Canal with the Atlantic, is the center of the civiliza- tion of tomorrow. Here where West meets East in trade and the interchange of ideas, is the theater of the mighty deeds of the world to be. Berkeley, the Pacific capital of learning, must fit herself to be worthy of the leadership which fate has thrust upon it. It must rear a city of supreme beauty wherein men will think great thoughts and exercise that leadership which flows from knowledge and high ideals. Come to us, all you who see the vision, and help us to worthily fulfill our destiny. Berkeley, looking through the Golden Gate, is calling you!

ALAMEDA

Alameda, known as the "city with unexcelled climate," is located on the San Francisco Bay. It is one of the most beautiful homesites in the Bay District.

The Beaches located all along the south shore are the greatest vacation attraction. They offer bathing, boating, playgrounds for children, dancing and all manner of amusements. These beaches attract the amusement seekers, not only from Alameda, but from the entire Bay District.

The Beaches are not the only source of amusement. The Municipal Golf Course on Bay Farm, Island, in the south end of Alameda, offers a very atractive course for those interested in golfing. The course is equipped with a modern Club House and Restaurant. The course is well patronized.

The Parks, one of Alameda's chief beauties, serve every residential section. Daily attendance averages 2085 people, the majority being children who seek outdoor amusement and recreation so generously offered by the Park Department.

With all these residential advantages, it is not to be assumed that Alameda's industrial attractions play a small part, for she is unsurpassed for industrial and manufacturing purposes, having a water frontage of 14 miles, five of which are situated on the estuary, offering splendid shipping facilities.

The Encinal Terminals, after looking over the entire East Bay District, found Alameda the most favorable site for its location. It has plans for the construction of seven more units such as the two already established.

The Alaska Packers Association, also located on the Estuary, is one of the largest salmon packing concerns in the world. Alameda was selected as a base because of the sheltered winter quarters furnished for its large fleet.

The Boyle Manufacturing Company have expanded their organization consid- erably during the past few years. They recently purchased an area of land near by their present factory and constructed a large factory.

Besides her natural beauty Alameda also has acquired embellishments in the form of beautiful buildings. The new million and a half dollar High School recently completed is the most beautiful and modern in the state. The Alameda Sanatorium, situated in a most ideal site on the south shore of the city, is another one of Alameda's new and modern edifices.

Alameda's most beautiful and outstanding building is the new Hotel Alameda, built of old Spanish architecture and furnished in similar style. This hotel is a transient-apartment hotel and serves as the social center of the city.

With its reputation as a manufacturing, horticultural and residential city, the social life is not overlooked. There are lodges and benevolent organizations such as the Elks Club, with its beautiful home, The Women's Adelphian Club, which has done wonderful work since its organization and now takes its place among the leading women's clubs in California. The Alameda Tea Club, the Shakespeare Club, the Research Club, the Alcyon Reading Club are among the women's clubs in active operation. Every school has a Mother's Club and the High School a Parent-Teachers Association.

Alameda bas a population of 38,000. It is under the City Manager form of government. The complete system of paved streets, of which Alameda boasts, possesses electroliers placed at intervals of 75 feet. Alameda owns its electric light plant, which makes the electric rates about 25 per cent lower in Alameda than in neighboring cities. Taxpayers in Alameda are not taxed for street or other public lighting.

Flowers grow in profusion in the city, the dahlia being the most prolific. A. unique blossom festival, the annual Dahlia Show, participated in by flower growers of Alameda and held under the auspices of the Chamber of Commerce, brings out thousands of dahlias.

The Alameda Chamber of Commerce recently published a new booklet which gives some very valuable information on Alameda. They shall be very glad to send out any literature upon request.

OAKLAND CITY HALL

***

MAYOR'S MESSAGE, 1928

CITY COUNCIL OF OAKLAND

Upper Left-EUGENE K. STURGIS, Commis- sioner of Revenue and Finance.

Lower Left-W. H. PARKER, Commissioner of Streets.

Upper Right-FRANK COLBOURN. Commis- sioner of Public Works. Lower Right-CHAS. C. YOUNG, Commissioner of Public Health and Safety.

Center-JOHN L. DAVIE, Mayor of Oakland.

OAKLAND, CALIFORNIA

MAYOR'S ESSAGE

Honorable City Council, City Hall, Oakland, California.

GENTLEMEN :

In accordance with the custom of previous years, and as required by the City Charter, I present herewith my annual message and report on the City of Oakland for the past year.

"Oakland is the most prosperous city in America."

This statement was made during the fiscal year by the largest statistical organization of the country-while United States Chamber of Commerce records point out that Oak- land during 1927 was one of only three cities in the United States to remain in the first or "white" group. Only two factors registered decrease, one due to certain great financial consolidations, and the other to the nation-wide halt in building that followed the almost hectic construction programs of 1926 and early 1927.

Bank clearings declined because of several large banking and clearing house reor- ganizations. Yet bank debits, true criterion of exchange of money and commodities, increased over 30 per cent; in 1926 being $2,065,256,000, and in 1927 increasing to $2,707,- 226,000, a total increase of over Half a Billion dollars in one year.

Building permits of 1927 fell to $20,794,669-a decrease of 26 per cent under the previous year of unparalleled downtown construction operations which brought Oakland to the forefront among cities of her size in early 1927.

Despite the apparent slacking off of these two indexes, however, records still point out Oakland's supremacy. General business is the standard of proof and Oakland, to put it bluntly, is in this respect not only the most prosperous but the fastest growing in the country. To show local comparisons but three figures are needed: San Francisco's average rate of business increase is today 51% per cent; that of Los Angeles is 9 per cent; Oak- land's is 13 per cent.

Statistics-Federal, State, County and City-indicate that this progress and growth touch all phases of our community life: business, recreation, home. Bank debits, post office receipts, building permits, installation of public service facilities-all indicate steady, speedy growth based upon foundations of indisputable reliability and permanence.

The following summation, approximated from the actual figures of the first eleven months of the fiscal year 1927-28, reflects this with definiteness and clarity. Compared with them are the figures of twelve years ago.

MAYOR'S MESSAGE, 1928

New "Oakland Theatre," seating 4,500, built during year on Tele- graph Avenue, between Seventeenth and Eighteenth Streets, by West Coast Theatre organization at a cost of $800,000.

1916

1928

Population

187,000 $73,000,000

342,000

Bank deposits

$195,000.000 $975,000,000

Bank Debits

$2,800,000,000

Postal receipts

$560,000

$2,000,000

Building permits (number)

3,380

6,600

Building permits (value) ..

$5,368,000

$18,500.000

Assessed valuation

$145,000,000

$275,000,000

Carloads of freight.

81,000

186,000

National industries

130

Motor Vehicle registrations.

18,000

90,000

Theatres

Banks

School registration

23,000

60,000

Number of vessels arrived.

1,500

14,800

Cargo tonnage

182,000

2,150,000

Feet of lumber carried.

5,000,000

204,231,000

INDUSTRY

Industrial figures likewise indicate our city's development. Compared with 1916 their proof is clear.

No. of Establishments

Employees

Annual Payroll

Yearly Output

1916

573

7,706

$ 5,966,000

$ 28,522,000

1927-28 1,289

45,825

62,400,000

430,000,000

These figures also point out the attitude Oakland should assume toward newcoming industries or mercantile concerns. We are proud of our two slogans: "Oakland. Where Rail, Air and Water Meet," and "Oakland, Industrial Capital of the West." Both of these are statements of truth-based upon actual facts and figures. The reason for their truth lies in Oakland's outstanding location from the standpoint of giving service to her own ctizens and to the rest of the world.

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Polk's Oakland (California) city directory, 1928, Part 2

Author: R.L. Polk & Co Publication date: 1928 Publisher: Oakland, Calif. : R.L. Polk & Co. Number of Pages: 1708

Author: R.L. Polk & Co
Publication date: 1928
Publisher: Oakland, Calif. : R.L. Polk & Co.
Number of Pages: 1708